10:06am Monday 1st September 2008
By Paul Fraser
Sunderland 0 Manchester City 3
| • VIEW MATCH FACTS HERE |
| • VIEW MATCH ANALYSIS HERE |
WITH one of Sunderland’s recent signings sporting a new hair-cut for his home debut and another paraded in front of the fans at half-time, Wearside was left stunned by the performance of another
new-boy – Shaun Wright- Phillips.
After the previous weekend’s successful emergence from Tottenham with three points, few had envisaged that Djibril Cisse – with a specially designed red stripe dyed into his hair – would have tasted a 3-0 defeat on his first appearance at the Stadium of Light for his new club.
That, however, was what happened, with Sunderland doing their best after the interval to illustrate why manager Roy Keane was given the go-ahead to invest £8m in a new centre-back, Anton Ferdinand.
With Ferdinand in the stands to witness the Black Cats slip into the sort of second half display that left them in relegation trouble last season, Keane will now have no problems in explaining the former West Ham’s man inclusion at Wigan on September 13.
While Sunderland had defended successfully until moments before the interval, Cisse and El-Hadji Diouf’s failure to pose a slim threat to the goal of Manchester City’s Joe Hart proved costly.
And, ironically, after a season of spending at Sunderland, it was one of the transfer targets Keane failed to deliver who opened the scoring.
Stephen Ireland, a Corkman many expected to leave before tonight’s deadline, struck low into Craig Gordon’s bottom corner, despite the Scotland No 1’s best efforts to keep it out.
From there, despite the halftime team-talk, Sunderland collapsed both defensively and as an attacking force, much to the gain of Wright-Phillips.
Having concluded his £9m return to his first club from Chelsea last week, the England winger was allowed to score two of the easiest goals he will manage during the rest of his career.
The first arrived five minutes after half-time, a simple tap in from inside six yards. The second, after being allowed to sprint in behind the Sunderland defence, followed eight minutes later.
Sunderland’s performance, completely out of character for a team that had looked in meaningful mood in Premier League fixtures with Liverpool and Spurs, was undeserving of the reception the supporters had given them throughout.
The players were not the only representatives of Sunderland to be given a hero’s reception yesterday, with the city’s Olympic bronze medallist Tony Jeffries paraded in front of supporters.
It was clear just how much it meant to him to be given the opportunity to walk out in front of the club’s supporters, just nine days after the same fans tuned into their televisions to witness the South Hylton lightheavyweight in Beijing.
And once Jeffries had taken his seat in the stand, Sunderland’s players started displaying their own tenacity on the football pitch, emerging from a number of the early 50-50s with the ball.
With such a vibrant opening Sunderland looked more capable of scoring in the opening quarter of an hour.
But, once the initial zip had been taken out of the home side’s play, City gradually enjoyed more possession.
Mark Hughes’s team, however, were unable to threaten Gordon’s goal in the opening half, which made Sunderland’s failure to capitalise on their bright start worse.
After one pretty routine corner had been cleared to the edge of the area, Grant Leadbitter struck low and wide after being teed up on the edge of the area by Kieran Richardson.
Leadbitter, included at the expense of captain Dean Whitehead who was not even named among the substitutes, also curled a powerful freekick marginally over the bar later in the half.
With Daryl Murphy also excluded, although the Irishman was on the bench, there was another chance for El-Hadji Diouf to stake his claim to play up front alongside Cisse.
While neither of Keane’s most two high-profile summer acquisitions caused a problem to the City defence, their constant manoeuvring allowed the midfielders to break forward.
And, after Steed Malbranque had crashed an effort high over the bar from a knock down from Cisse, it was such attacking movements from the middle men that led to two incidents which infuriated the home support – and Keane.
He was prepared, to an extent, to let the first go when play was waved on after Malbranque had been manhandled to the floor by Richard Dunne.
That prevented the winger from bursting through on goal after a neat interchange of passing with Richardson, but there was a similar incident seconds later. This time, however, Keane was disgusted.
Belgium international Vincent Kompany appeared to pull back Leadbitter, yet referee Chris Foy took no action and the Sunderland manager exchanged words with the fourth official, Alan Wiley.
And his anger must have reached new levels on the stroke of halftime, when City went in front.
Falling behind was harsh on Sunderland, although it was not completely unexpected when Ireland finished off a good move down the left involving Michael Johnson and Dietmar Hamann.
It meant Sunderland had the task of turning things around after the restart, although it would have been different had Diouf’s backpost header dropped over the line, after he had beaten Michael Ball to Bardsley’s centre.
Whatever was said in the dressing room at the interval, though, failed to have the desired effect. Five minutes later, City made the most of Sunderland’s inability to clear to make it two.
Despite Hamann striking a free-kick straight at Leadbitter, the visitors were first to react. Kompany stroked a slide-rule pass to Johnson, which carried to Jo.
The Brazilian, who had looked well short of the £20m paid out for him, delivered across the face of the goal and Wright-Phillips tapped in.
Worse was to come when Sunderland had forgotten how to defend. Wright-Phillips, whose speed has been well documented for years, coasted in between Danny Collins and Bardsley to apply the composed finish to Ball’s long punt upfield.
Three-nil and three changes followed almost immediately after from Keane, with Murphy, Anthony Stokes and David Healy all introduced at the expense of Cisse, Diouf and Leadbitter.
In truth, though, while the City fans partied and their Sunderland counterparts did their best to remain upbeat, Sunderland could never bring themselves back into it.
The best they could muster was when Healy struck low – his side’s only shot on target of the second half – and Hart comfortably gathered.
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